International Property Investment

COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE FORECAST DRAWS HUGE CROWD

Mark Knowles — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:23:30 +0000

More than 250 of the top business leaders in commercial real estate met last week to hear the Voit Real Estate Services’ Commercial Real Estate Forecast at the Pacific Club. The top-notch panel included keynote speaker Dr. Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics, residential guru John McMonigle of the McMonigle Group, Robert D. Voit, president of Voit Real Estate Services, and Ken Gaitan, head of Bank of America’s OREO West.

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Property prices in the UK still distorted by low sales volumes

Mark Knowles — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:25:44 +0000

It appears the British Government Inc has managed to eke out another 0.1% increase in average sale prices in the UK at the expense of sales volumes. According to the Land Registry, average sales prices have now risen 0.1% to £161,764, bringing the yearly increase up 2.5%

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Church of England Investment in Manhattan Goes South

Mark Knowles — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:45:13 +0000

Ouch! It appears the church of England is – once again – better at preaching morals than actually practicing them. A £40 million investment in a decidedly-dodgy Manhattan luxury real estate deal has just gone up to heaven to be with Jesus. According to the Episcopal News Service:

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Burj Dubai Window Cleaning

Mark Knowles — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:16:51 +0000

Although the Burj Dubai is now “finished,” we still have not seen an influx of tenants or investors, but this rather entertaining video of the windows being cleaned makes up wonder what is going on. Surely this is not a practical solution. Or is it? With labor being cheap and readily available. Not a job we would fancy though. Scary…..

Property Investment in Methoni

Martyn Shuttleworth — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:41:54 +0000

After the post concerning Greek Property investment in Sparta, we continue our look at property investment hotspots in the Peloponnese with a hop over the Taygetos Mountains, into Messinia. This corner of the Peloponnese is opening up, as transport and communications improve, and foreign buyers are increasingly looking at property investment in Methoni.

Greek Property Taxes – PASOK Implements Immediate Changes

Martyn Shuttleworth — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:40:53 +0000

Anybody who reads a newspaper, or surfs on the net, will be aware that the Greek economy is at crisis point and that the incoming government has to slash the country’s spending, immediately. Amidst a raft of measures designed to cut spending, increase taxation, and tackle the endemic corruption that has fuelled the black economy and reduced tax receipts, PASOK has announced that it is to shift the burden of Greek annual property taxes.

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British Tourism Up 7% On Lanzarote

Nick — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:15:19 +0000

Whilst tourism across Spain has fallen by a figure of 8.7% nationally during 2009, according to official government figures released yesterday, the popular holiday destination of Lanzarote has managed to buck this negative trend. With the number of tourists arriving on flights to Lanzarote from the UK actually increasing during the course of November 2009 by nearly 7%.

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Where is the next hot foreclosure market to invest in?

Mark Knowles — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:08:50 +0000

Well, one thing 2009 bought is a potentially vast pool of foreclosure property to invest in. So – where is the best foreclosure market to invest in?

The United States? The amount of bank owned property sloshing around is quite stunning. Not including the ongoing devaluation in the commercial sector, the US banks now own an estimated 22 million foreclosures and are likely to add another 7 million to that over the next 2 years. No one really talks about this and industry insiders refer to it as “shadow inventory,” because much of it is not actively for sale. Where do you think all that lovely federal reserve money went? What little that did not make it’s way to a numbered bank account in the Cayman’s went to prop up the banks deemed “too big to fail,” and allow them to keep these TWENTY TWO MILLION residential properties off the market. Much of this “shadow inventory,” is in Nevada, California, Florida and will not appeal to the overseas buyer unless it is within a few hours of an international airport – which much of it is not. The other question is – if it ever gets to the point where these properties are released onto the market – any one holding any stock is going to see that value plummet overnight. Caveat Emptor.

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Greek Property Investment in Sparta

Martyn Shuttleworth — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:49:29 +0000

When investors look at Greek property investment, they normally think of Mykonos Crete or Attica, places with a well-established market that generates quick profits. Certainly, for higher end property investments, the kudos attached to these places is guaranteed to generate interest and has fuelled a development boom. However, the recent economic crisis has caused the market to stagnate, a little. Developers and investors are finding it increasingly difficult to make a profit, especially when the new government is threatening to increase the taxation burden upon high-end property portfolios.

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UK Property Investment – What is going on in the market?

Mark Knowles — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:43:40 +0000

Mixed sentiments and news snippets at the moment are causing uncertainty in most markets.

The United Kingdom

British Banker’s Association mortgage approvals increased once again in November rising a further 5.1% to 44,713 units from an upwardly revised 42,552 in October (originally reported as 42,238). At this level approvals are up 152% year on year from the cycle low last November of 17,738. More significantly at these levels they are 0.7% above the November 2007 level when re-mortgaging was rife, as opposed to almost non-existent today. This is at best a recovery based on the stamp duty holiday and we will probably see another fall in January.

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